"My Town and Yours"

"My Town and Yours" Thoughts and Observations of Mark Lange

The Aging of Education

by Mark Lange,posted Nov 8 2013 5:55AM

Accompanied my "Temporary Life Partner" to an informational meeting at Vincennes University concerning teacher retirement. I'm not going to speak out of school, but if that one meeting is any indication of what is happening in one of this communty's most important industries, the changes for all of us will be huge. Over fifty teachers most with thirty to forty years experience listened intently as the representative from the state teachers pension group explained pensions, annuities, rules, and regulations all focusing on retirement before the end of this coming August. Teachers and any employee in the state pension system will be facing smaller pensions after the end of August because of changes within the system. Between now and then we will see thousands of retirements state wide and maybe as many as hundreds in our community.

Why should we care? Not only will our community lose some really good, effective, and focused teachers and other covered employees, it will lose many of them to other communities. Many will move to warmer climates. Others will move to be near their children who have already left town. And then there's the grand kids. All of those reasons are fine. Isn't retirement all about doing what you want to do? But when retirees move they take with them more than their job skills. They take their spending. They take their community service efforts. They take their experience on how things have been done successfully in the past. Of course their replacements bring new ideas and new spending, but there won't be as many replacements as retirees and they won't be paid the same. That's fact in the new economy.

For those of us who will be staying, it could be a sad fall. For those of us who may suddenly have a retiree in the household there will be lots of changes.

The guy from the state said "You shouldn't retire FROM something. You should retire TO something". So for all of those potential retirees making there plans, consider all of the things that "need to be done" for our community and DO them. You've got the skills. You've proven it for decades.